London Olympics 2012

Speaking of amazing swimming achievements, I can't help but be a little suspicious of that Chinese girl who is swimming faster than men.

I've grown more suspicious of everyone in the Olympics. How do people keep setting new world records? Can training methods, nutrition, and new technique really keep making people faster every couple of years?

Funkenpants wrote:

Can training methods, nutrition, and new technique really keep making people faster every couple of years?

In short, yes. The more science that's applied, the more progress occurs. Increased globalization's another part of it - people with the natural talent for these things are often discovered at an earlier age and begin training at the highest level faster.

That's not to say you shouldn't be skeptical, of course. These people are doing everything possible within (and sometimes outside) the rules to temporarily improve performance, a process which has also been refined over the years.

Funkenpants wrote:

Speaking of amazing swimming achievements, I can't help but be a little suspicious of that Chinese girl who is swimming faster than men.

I've grown more suspicious of everyone in the Olympics. How do people keep setting new world records? Can training methods, nutrition, and new technique really keep making people faster every couple of years?

The swiming faster than the men thing isn't really fair because the writer of that article is talking about the medley, where they take part in all the swimming events, as last night showed Phelps and Lochte aren't strongest on the freestlye, which is where Ye came back strong. They have just chosen to ignore the other 3 style split times.
The Men's World Record time is 4:03.84, her time world record is 4:28.43, yeah so no where near the men in reality. Lochte's winning time was 4:05.18.
Not suprising that the source of this article is Aus, when the next best swimmer is one of their own.

onewild wrote:

The swiming faster than the men thing isn't really fair because the writer of that article is talking about the medley, where they take part in all the swimming events, as last night showed Phelps and Lochte aren't strongest on the freestlye, which is where Ye came back strong. They have just chosen to ignore the other 3 style split times.

Everyone recognizes that. The fact that she beat them on any laps is what is shocking people, because when you're talking about Olympic athletes there are usually pretty large gaps between top men and top women. This is a 16-year old who hasn't even reached athletic peak.

Ye’s time was more than 6 1/2 seconds faster than her 4:35.15 at Worlds when she placed fifth, way behind Beisel’s 4:31.78. To put it in perspective, Beisel, the event favorite, clocked a personal-best 4:31.27 and still got left in the white water.

Link. Big jumps in performance always raise suspicions. We often don't get proof until well after an event when the regulators scientists catch up with the dopers' scientists. So speculation is natural.

Seems like there are so many heats... boating, swimming, and so on. Heat after heat after heat to whittle the competition down to a final 6 or 8 or whatever. Really just a whole lot of playing not to lose until the final.

I don't remember this many before. Not sure if there are more teams in some events, or maybe it's just the TV coverage actually showing all the heats this year where maybe they only showed semis/finals before.

Stele wrote:

Seems like there are so many heats... boating, swimming, and so on. Heat after heat after heat to whittle the competition down to a final 6 or 8 or whatever. Really just a whole lot of playing not to lose until the final.

I don't remember this many before. Not sure if there are more teams in some events, or maybe it's just the TV coverage actually showing all the heats this year where maybe they only showed semis/finals before. :?

I think it's the latter. In the days where channels only showed one event, they would naturally concentrate on the finals. Over here in the UK we've got 24 separate channels running at the same time, which therefore allows much more coverage of the earlier stages. I also think that the addition of more women's sports and the IOC encouraging new countries to send teams (and countries to send female athletes as well) has increased the number of competitors.

Just watched today's individual archery heats, and they were worth watching. Some tight rounds. Good to see a full-time worker at Rolls Royce in Bristol getting to the final sixteen for Great Britain.
Godfrey has a 'lofted drive over long on' celebration, but then gives the signal for a boundary, so clearly doesn't think he cleared the rope. Possibly fitting for a Lords wicket.

Godfrey has a 'lofted drive over long on' celebration, but then gives the signal for a boundary, so clearly doesn't think he cleared the rope. Possibly fitting for a Lords wicket.

I... have no idea what any of this means.

Just flipped the TV on to see what was happening. Men's field hockey is an Olympic sport? Had no idea. Also, either they have turned the sensitivity way up on the audience microphones, or people in Argentina and Great Britain are really, really into men's field hockey. Lots of cheering.

Godfrey has a 'lofted drive over long on' celebration, but then gives the signal for a boundary, so clearly doesn't think he cleared the rope. Possibly fitting for a Lords wicket.

Or just this.

Cricket makes sense, but I thought he was talking about archery......

Did they say why they took baseball and softball out of the summer Olympics. I remember it happening just don't remember the reasoning.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Just flipped the TV on to see what was happening. Men's field hockey is an Olympic sport? Had no idea. Also, either they have turned the sensitivity way up on the audience microphones, or people in Argentina and Great Britain are really, really into men's field hockey. Lots of cheering.

It's probably more along the lines of not liking each other very much!

EverythingsTentative wrote:

Did they say why they took baseball and softball out of the summer Olympics. I remember it happening just don't remember the reasoning.

Softball - too much U.S winning - not enough interest in the rest of the world to survive Olympic politics

I think baseball was similar.

If it hasn't been mentioned recently, NBC's coverage sucks and their iPhone app is horrible.

Ego Man wrote:
EverythingsTentative wrote:

Did they say why they took baseball and softball out of the summer Olympics. I remember it happening just don't remember the reasoning.

Softball - too much U.S winning - not enough interest in the rest of the world to survive Olympic politics

I think baseball was similar.

If it hasn't been mentioned recently, NBC's coverage sucks and their iPhone app is horrible.

To be fair is it NBC... I remember having to watch part of the 2010 winter olympics on NBC and was not impressed at all.

I am unsure how I feel about Japan forcing an appeal. Japan Silver

EverythingsTentative wrote:

Did they say why they took baseball and softball out of the summer Olympics. I remember it happening just don't remember the reasoning.

Because not enough countries play it at a competitive level.

Funkenpants wrote:

Everyone recognizes that. The fact that she beat them on any laps is what is shocking people, because when you're talking about Olympic athletes there are usually pretty large gaps between top men and top women. This is a 16-year old who hasn't even reached athletic peak.

Ye’s time was more than 6 1/2 seconds faster than her 4:35.15 at Worlds when she placed fifth, way behind Beisel’s 4:31.78. To put it in perspective, Beisel, the event favorite, clocked a personal-best 4:31.27 and still got left in the white water.

Link. Big jumps in performance always raise suspicions. We often don't get proof until well after an event when the regulators scientists catch up with the dopers' scientists. So speculation is natural.

Yet there has being nothing about Meilutyte or Missy Franklin, who are also winning golds at very young ages and in quick times. As you said she is a 16 year old who hasn't reached her athlectic peak, times jump about all over the place at that age because they are improving all the time. If she is found to have taken something, than it is time to point fingers, not before.

momgamer wrote:

Cricket makes sense, but I thought he was talking about archery......

So was I. The archery is taking place at Lord's, the Jerusalem of cricket (in that it, in some ways, belongs to all cricketers everywhere).
The guy's an archer, British, and doesn't appear to play cricket, but his celebration when he won his individual matches clearly indicates that he's enjoying playing up to the history at the place. It was fun, and I'm looking forward to watching the eliminations.

Also: Slukova & Kolocova.

onewild wrote:
EverythingsTentative wrote:

Did they say why they took baseball and softball out of the summer Olympics. I remember it happening just don't remember the reasoning.

Because not enough countries play it at a competitive level.

Funkenpants wrote:

Everyone recognizes that. The fact that she beat them on any laps is what is shocking people, because when you're talking about Olympic athletes there are usually pretty large gaps between top men and top women. This is a 16-year old who hasn't even reached athletic peak.

Ye’s time was more than 6 1/2 seconds faster than her 4:35.15 at Worlds when she placed fifth, way behind Beisel’s 4:31.78. To put it in perspective, Beisel, the event favorite, clocked a personal-best 4:31.27 and still got left in the white water.

Link. Big jumps in performance always raise suspicions. We often don't get proof until well after an event when the regulators scientists catch up with the dopers' scientists. So speculation is natural.

Yet there has being nothing about Meilutyte or Missy Franklin, who are also winning golds at very young ages and in quick times. As you said she is a 16 year old who hasn't reached her athlectic peak, times jump about all over the place at that age because they are improving all the time. If she is found to have taken something, than it is time to point fingers, not before.

If someone pays their bill late every month and then one or two months is on time, the next month when it is late again do you assume they didn't pay or it got lost in the mail?

Wow, NBC does a commercial promo for an interview with "first time Olympic gold medal winner Missy Franklin" moments before her 100m gold-winning race.

Smooth move.

Aaron D. wrote:

Wow, NBC does a commercial promo for an interview with "first time Olympic gold medal winner Missy Franklin" moments before her 100m gold-winning race.

Smooth move.

Yea, I noticed that as well. Brilliant.

Double post for great justice

emrebfg wrote:
Aaron D. wrote:

Wow, NBC does a commercial promo for an interview with "first time Olympic gold medal winner Missy Franklin" moments before her 100m gold-winning race.

Smooth move.

Yea, I noticed that as well. Brilliant.

I know networks have a lot of power, but I didn't realize it included subverting the flow of time.

onewild wrote:

Yet there has being nothing about Meilutyte or Missy Franklin, who are also winning golds at very young ages and in quick times.

It's not about quick times. It's about jumps in performance. As I posted above:

Ye’s time was more than 6 1/2 seconds faster than her 4:35.15 at Worlds when she placed fifth, way behind Beisel’s 4:31.78. To put it in perspective, Beisel, the event favorite, clocked a personal-best 4:31.27 and still got left in the white water.

That's why everyone is talking about it. Missy Franklin didn't set a world record last night. She didn't beat the 2008 Olympic times of Natalie Coughlin. She didn't swim away from the other competitors. If she had, people would be speculating about her. We've seen enough amazing, unexpected performances in sports turn out to be aided by various illegal methods to NOT speculate at this point.

Bonnonon wrote:

I am unsure how I feel about Japan forcing an appeal. Japan Silver

I wish I could tell how I felt about it. It would've helped if NBC had shown more than a few select routines of the people who actually medaled. I think they showed like three Japanese routines.

That being said, I felt so bad for the Americans. The dude who fell during his vault, oh man

This is a bit late, but to clear it up a little, baseball isn't absent from the Olympics because of a lack of global interest or competition. If that were the case, Japan wouldn't have won both World Baseball Classics so far (the US has been finished unranked and 4th). In fact, at least half of the best MLB players are from other countries, mainly in Latin America.

The reason is mostly because the best in the world play in MLB, and they don't take a month off for the Olympics. Here's an article on the matter.

That's surprising. Most top flight footballers aren't playing in the Olympics, but it's still an event.

spider_j wrote:

That's surprising. Most top flight footballers aren't playing in the Olympics, but it's still an event.

Olympic soccer is specifically U-23 though, with 3 over 23 players allowed per team. The qualifying is separate from World Cup teams.

That's U-23 rule is what NBA Commissioner Stern has been suggesting recently for the NBA players in basketball as well, although some current players on the men's team have been pretty publicly against it, like Kobe Bryant.

Not sure why baseball can't have something close to that. Maybe expand it to U25? But really it's just about the conflicting season. To ask the MLB to take a month off or even 2 weeks for the games only would be difficult, and the teams with top talent are not going to want to play without them for dozens of games in August as they are making runs to get in the playoffs.

Blind_Evil wrote:

This is a bit late, but to clear it up a little, baseball isn't absent from the Olympics because of a lack of global interest or competition. If that were the case, Japan wouldn't have won both World Baseball Classics so far (the US has been finished unranked and 4th). In fact, at least half of the best MLB players are from other countries, mainly in Latin America.

North America and Asia is not global interest. The medals were almost always some permutation of Cuba, US, Japan and Korea.

South Africa participated once. No other African team and no South American teams ever played. There were a couple of European teams but it was always Italy (Americans with dual citizenship) and the Netherlands (mainly Caribbean players). Greece and Spain were the only other European countries to play, once each. Even Asia didn't have much interest outside of Japan, Korea and Taiwan. China played once. Softball was even worse.

The article you linked is Rogge stating that MLB players are necessary for baseball to come back.

Whatever you say. The Olympics guy said it's because of a need for MLB players, that's what I said in my post.

And since when does Venezuela not count as part of South America?

Trying to get interested/involved but CTV's coverage in Canada so far has been painful.

I think I finally got a feed working of an actual event happening that doesn't involve Canada or is a main stream sport/event.

Mens fencing! who cares but it sure beats hearing the non stop news cycle of how Canada is doing.